Don't Give Me a Flat!

This article is by WIM Alexey Root.

Have you ever had the experience of someone stepping on the back of your shoe because they were walking too close behind you? Your shoe may have slipped uncomfortably down on your heel. Back when I was a child, someone stepping on the back of your shoe was said to be "giving you a flat." Your shoe sometimes even fell off!

The photo shows three children on the same file, in front of a desk. Just ignore the child behind the desk and look at the three children standing in between the two yellow lines. If we pretend those children are pawns of the same color, and also pretend the yellow lines are the borders of their file, what kind of pawns are they?

They are tripled pawns (worse then doubled pawns). And, guess what, everything I write about doubled pawns in this article goes triple for tripled pawns. It is so easy to attack tripled or doubled pawns with a rook, queen, or even a king. If they don't have any friendly pawns on the adjacent files to protect them then they are isolated pawns, and you can often just capture them, one by one...

Isolated means no friendly pawns on adjacent (next to) files. Though it is hard to find good things to say about tripled pawns (and especially triple isolated pawns!), I do have a few nice things to say about doubled pawns. Read on.

Although we don't like someone standing on our heels in real life, we often subject our pawns to just this sort of unpleasant experience by allowing them to be doubled. Doubled pawns are two pawns of the same color on the same file. Doubled pawns only come about through captures. So, generally speaking, you should recapture with a piece rather than a pawn if the pawn capture leads to doubled pawns. On the other hand, make sure you recapture, as you don't want to be  a piece behind just because you were afraid of doubling your pawns. Quiz time! 

 

 

In the diagram, it is better to take with the queen than to double your pawns. the diagram also brought up the point that kings don't want to be on open files, rooks do. If you have doubled pawns, let your rook or rooks go to that open file, not your king. An open file is a file with no pawns on it. A half-open file has pawns of just one color on it. Rooks like to be on open or half-open files.

Let's try another quiz.

 

In this case, you had to double your pawns to keep material equality. Material equality means that each side has captured the same number of points. For example, if you have captured 3 pawns (3 points) of mine, I want to make sure to capture 3 points of yours. Those three points could be three pawns, a knight, or a bishop.

Is there anything good about doubled pawns? It turns out there is, but only if you have the major pieces (your rooks, or your queen, or both) on your side. That's because doubling your pawns will open, or half-open, a file. Put your major piece on that file. As already mentioned, a rook is a great piece for an open file.

A queen isn't quite as good, because an enemy rook may end up chasing her off that open file. But better a rook or queen than your king on an open file! One last quiz to emphasize what to do with the open file created by your having doubled pawns.

 

 

In summary, it's usually best to avoid doubled pawns by capturing with a piece instead. But it is better to double your pawns than to fail to recapture a piece! Finally, doubled pawns are bad news in any endgame without rooks and/or queens. One example was in the Crystal Ball article where black lost a king and pawn endgame because of his doubled c-pawns. If you get doubled pawns, make the best of it by placing your rooks and/or your queen on the open or half-open file adjacent to your doubled pawns.